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Playing catch-up: games and play in the wider culture and in the library

Play and games are set to be the media of the 21st Century in the same way audiovisual media were of the 20th. But libraries have largely ignored the tremendous importance (and potential) of these new media, making little to no effort to include them in collections except as they do so easily, and even ignoring games that come in book form. There has been little effort to curate games and play, cultivate deeper and broader critical appreciation in the public, or even apply accurate taxonomies. (And if you know librarians, that really says something about the size of the blind spot!)

This presentation, delivered at the Australian Library & Information Association's 7th New Librarians' Symposium (ALIA's NLS7), outlines the foundational reasons why games and play actually matter a lot more than our culture likes to think, and especially to libraries; it also offers some pointers for making this case to existing library institutions, and how to negotiate a system that is almost completely blind to the value of play.

11.
Why leave the comfort zone?
• Comfy = what we already know
• Challenge is key to learning: Vygotsky, scaffolding
• Challenge is key to “flow”
• Flow is the pleasure that drives learning, and also –
not coincidentally – play: the process of
simultaneously exercising and developing mastery

12.
Why leave the comfort zone?
• Comfy = what we already know
• Challenge is key to learning: Vygotsky, scaffolding
• Challenge is key to “flow”
• Flow is the pleasure that drives learning, and also –
not coincidentally – play
• So I’m not aiming for comfy, I’m aiming for
interesting and fun

13.
What are we covering today?
• A general understanding of the current state of the art of
games and play in the wider cultural context

14.
What are we covering today?
• A general understanding of the current state of the art of
games and play in the wider cultural context
• Basic understanding of the possibilities for games and
play in the library (obstacles and opportunities)

15.
What are we covering today?
• A general understanding of the current state of the art of
games and play in the wider cultural context
• Basic understanding of the possibilities for games and
play in the library (obstacles and opportunities)
• Introduction to curation and critical discussion of games

16.
What are we covering today?
• A general understanding of the current state of the art of
games and play in the wider cultural context
• Basic understanding of the possibilities for games and
play in the library (obstacles and opportunities)
• Introduction to curation and critical discussion of games
• Improved ability to integrate games and play into business
cases for libraries

17.
What are we covering today?
• A general understanding of the current state of the art of
games and play in the wider cultural context
• Basic understanding of the possibilities for games and
play in the library (obstacles and opportunities)
• Introduction to curation and critical discussion of games
• Improved ability to integrate games and play into business
cases for libraries
• Awareness of which of your fellow participants is a
Werewolf

18.
What’s the agenda?
• Set the ground rules
• Meet each other
• Learn a little about why this
matters
• Explore play
• Explore games
• BREAK!
• Possibilities for games and
play in libraries
• Obstacles
• Opportunities
• Criticism & curation
• Making the case
• Find out who’s a
WEREWOLF!

19.
LOTS to cover!
So we’ll be going fast.
If you need me to stop and clarify, please ask.

20.
And we’ll be playing.
Trust me, we’ll also be learning.
(Yes, I plan for that to include me.)

21.
Permission to play
• Play nice, play safe, play fair.
• NOT “play perfectly”! It’s OK to make “mistakes”.
• It’s OK to not play, or leave play, if needed.
• You are encouraged to try things and ask questions.
• We will all support you – we’re all here to learn too.
• The social contract of play (part of its appeal!):
We’re here to have fun, with other people also having fun.
• We play nice, we play safe, we play fair.

23.
Getting to know you
• Let’s all shake on that deal.
• All at once.

24.
Getting to know you
• Let’s all shake on that deal.
• All at once.
• Actually, while we’re doing it, let’s
THUMB-WRESTLE.

25.
Getting to know you
• You now know something new about the people around
you – and mightn’t have learned it another way.
• Let’s quickly run around the room and introduce
ourselves.
• Just say your name and a single sentence about your
relationship to games and/or play, or what you hope to
learn today.
• It’s fine to use this to tell me if you have reservations
about games and/or play, in general or in libraries.

26.
About me
• Shy (yes, really)
• Geeky (surprise!)
• Total bookworm (got my glasses before a computer)
• I’ve worked in human rights, publishing, theatre, film,
games, libraries, IT
• Fascinated by the creative and community-building
potential of games & play
• Three things that sum me up

27.
The original Project Gutenberg
(seen at the New York Public Library)

28.
A board game of robots
made from a toy
run by a computer
(seen at a geek convention, Gen Con)

30.
Why do we play?
• Learning (show beats tell, but play with beats look at!)
• Babies play to learn everything – their senses, their bodies,
their brains, the outside world, language: the most playful
time of our lives is the time we are the smartest (though
most ignorant and unskilled)
• This lasts throughout life – uneducated kids in Indian
slums left free to play can teach themselves how to use
computers and navigate the internet (in English!).
Adults who play learn faster, improve skills, and resist
conditions like Alzheimer’s longer.

34.
How much do we play?
 Billions of hours every week. (Yes, week.)
That’s just what registers economically.
 We spend over US$100bn/year on playful
media.
 Videogames still growing in popularity,
toys steady, but tabletop games growing
even faster: local retailers report around
25% growth year-on-year for the last 5
years straight.

36.
How much do libraries play?
 Well, not quite nothing. But we don’t do a
lot. And certainly not proportionate to public
demand.
 Many libraries have no collections of play
media.
 Maybe a console or two in-house.
 Maybe console games (easy to lend).
 Maybe some games on a shelf,
unmonitored.
 Games events?

37.
Does it matter?
 Depends on what you see a library’s
mission as being.
 If it’s just books on shelves, then no.

38.
[Sidetrack:]
My understanding of “library”
 Literally: “A place of books”.
 So is a publisher’s warehouse a library?
What about the vault a collector keeps
their first editions locked away in?
 Obviously libraries are more important
than just storage.

39.
The archetypal library:
The Library of Alexandria
 NOT book-based (as
we understand it –
scrolls, not codices)
 NOT a symbol of epic
warehousing/
cataloguing
technique – those are
only means to an end.
 NOT just about text:
zoo, gardens, lecture
rooms, meeting
rooms…

40.
A library is:
Human thought, made accessible.
Shared information, ideas, beauty,
creative works
Self-directed, self-paced, opt-in
community of learning & culture
 (Also: The institution that makes a culture a
civilization; the social contract made manifest…)
END OF SIDETRACK

42.
Does it matter?
 Definitionally, yes.
 To games and play and the people who
love them, which is quite a large chunk
of the public, yes.

43.
Does it matter?
 Definitionally, yes.
 To games and play and the people who
love them, which is quite a large chunk
of the public, yes.
 To libraries, yes, very much.

44.
Does it matter?
Games have a rightful place in the library, among
the resources and the actions that constitute [the
library], in line with the establishment’s project, in
engagement with its territory and the practices of its
publics. Games thus become an element of the
library’s identity, identity the library must preserve in
all its complexity and richness.
- Jeu et bibliothèque: pour une conjugaison fertile,
French Inspectorate-General of Libraries, 2015

46.
Pass the Secret along
◦ While we’re doing that, we’ll talk a little about what
play is
◦ Whisper – you don’t want to give the next person a
hint!
◦ Last person, maybe write the Secret down in case you
forget!
◦ FYI I run a game of this each year that travels right
around the world!

47.
What is play?
Let’s pick apart the word to try to get at the
core of the concept.
What are the various uses and meanings of
“play”?

48.
What is play?
Lots of ways to play! You can…
• Play (a sport, a role, a game, a musical instrument…)
• Play with (a toy… or anything really)
• Play on (words, feelings)
• Play at something
• Play over something (if you’re a liquid, or light, etc)
• Play something up or down
• Play something out or play something back

49.
What is play?
• Personal and expressive – you engage, you
play, according to your nature
• Often also interpersonal/shared – we play
• Free (minimal restraints, other than voluntary)
• Flow-based
• Active and interactive, generative and
creative
• Self-confidence-boosting

55.
Play and the Magic Circle
• Johan Huizinga argued that play is a necessary
(but not sufficient) precondition for culture.
No culture without play.
• Spoke of the “magic circle” that play creates –
a special context where different rules apply,
and some ordinary rules don’t.
(see also courts, parliaments, etc…)

56.
So play is…
A quasi-magical space,
which creates shared experiences and common
ground,
with strong ties to intelligence, self-directed
learning, and creativity,
and essential to culture.

57.
So play is…
A quasi-magical space,
which creates shared experiences and common
ground,
with strong ties to intelligence, self-directed
learning, and creativity,
and essential to culture.
(And often underestimated)

58.
Sound familiar?
A quasi-magical space,
which creates shared experiences and common
ground,
with strong ties to intelligence, self-directed
learning, and creativity,
and essential to culture.
(And often underestimated)

64.
WHAT DOES THIS GAME TEACH?
• The unreliability of communication & the
importance of quality control
• The power (and pleasure) of human connection
• Emergence/complexity theory
• Your capacity to make mistakes and be misinformed
• Sometimes failure is interesting
• Lessons for social media?

65.
AND THIS IS JUST GOSSIP.
• So simple it barely counts as a game!
• Only two points of participation
• No real decisions
• No stakes (failure is kind of the point)
• Little need to get inside other people’s heads

66.
WHAT ARE GAMES?
(A DEFINITION THAT BEAT THE BEST EFFORTS OF ONE OF
THE 20TH CENTURY’S GREATEST MINDS)

67.
NOT ALL THE SAME!
IN FACT, ONE OF THE MOST INHERENTLY
VARIED MEDIA IMAGINABLE

68.
WORKING OUT WHAT GAMES ARE
• List examples
• Look for common threads

69.
WORKING OUT WHAT GAMES ARE
• Classics
• Modern classics
• Co-operative games
• Deception games
• Realtime games
• Bluffing games
• Trick-taking games
• Game books
• Roleplaying games
• Story games
• War games
• Party games
• Word games
• Social games
• Street games
• Pervasive games
• Deckbuilding games
• Metagames
• Collectible card games
• Miniature games
• Shooters
• Strategy games
• Puzzle games
• Simulations
• Adventure games
• Racing games
• Platform games
• Arcade games
• Console games
• Dance games
• Singing/music games
• Fighting games
• Social sims
• God games
• Rhythm games
• Trivia games
• Sandbox games
• Massively Multiplayer games
• Metacreative games

72.
A FEW KEY REASONS GAMES MATTER
• Billions of person-hours every week
• Billions of dollars annually – overtaking Hollywood and
publishing, long since eclipsed music. (Again, tabletop games
also resurgent!)
• Driving innovation in technologies of creation, publishing,
distribution and interfaces
• Colonising other media – top-selling book hour-by-hour on all of
Amazon for three days straight?
The new Dungeons & Dragons.
• Huge cultural influence, especially among geeks
• Tremendous manipulative/educative potential

73.
A FEW KEY REASONS GAMES MATTER TO LIBRARIES
• They are a published form of culture you have to share to
experience.
We are an institution where people come to share culture.
• There is no other institution for games – casinos and arcades
aren’t good enough! – and if you were to imagine what such
an institution would look like, it would look a lot like the
library. (Only with games.)
• They build community and offer bridges across irrelevant
demographic divisions.
• Access is a substantial issue.

87.
What’s the agenda?
• Set the ground rules
• Meet each other
• Learn a little about why this
matters
• Explore play
• Explore games
• BREAK!
• Possibilities for games and
play in libraries
• Obstacles
• Opportunities
• Criticism & curation
• Making the case
• Find out who’s a
WEREWOLF!

88.
What’s the agenda?
• Set the ground rules
• Meet each other
• Learn a little about why this
matters
• Explore play
• Explore games
• BREAK!
• Possibilities for games and
play in libraries
• Obstacles
• Opportunities
• Criticism & curation
• Making the case
• Find out who’s a
WEREWOLF!

89.
Possibilities
Many and varied, but here are some broad/key points:
• Playing up the “third place”/”new village square” theme
(c.f. Brueghel)

93.
STAFF RESISTANCE
•Make the case to peers, not just management
•Try to offer positive experiences
•Talk up library staff’s role as thought leaders
•Watch out for sabotaging behaviour, but know
it’s often unconscious

94.
MANAGEMENT CONSERVATISM
•Accept that constraints are a reality, but don’t
let them off the hook – leadership is their job
•Appeal to higher-level strategies
•Look for metrics that are useful to them
•Insist on “room to fail”, i.e. room to learn

95.
SYSTEMIC INDIFFERENCE
•Mutually reinforces management conservatism
•Critique metrics, budgets that exclude play
•Point out blind spots & omissions; link them to
low stats – e.g. library use among young men
•Push for room to experiment within the system

96.
PLAY VS. READING: MODE SHIFT
•Reading: (often) individual, reflective…
INTROVERTED
•Playing: (often) social, active… “EXTROVERTED”
•Feels very different
•I would argue these are complements, not
opposites, on a very important balance

97.
LACK OF PUBLIC EXPECTATION
•Public don’t associate libraries & play – so plug!
•People have established private play spaces &
groups – tap into these, but respect them
•Think about what a library might offer:
•Organised events with larger reach
•A larger pool of potential players
•“Matchmaking” to help find a game

99.
GAMES CLUBS
•Like book clubs, but as well as meeting to
discuss the work, you meet to play it
•(Maybe like Shakespeare club?)
•Can be monthly or weekly
•In conjunction with local game stores?

100.
LIBRARY LEAGUES
•Like local sporting leagues but for games
– lower physical barrier to participation
•Competition optional
•Foster team spirit, local community
•Connect that community on wider scale
•Take advantage of organised play programs

101.
OUTREACH TO GEEKS/YOUNG MEN
•Geeks already feel safe in libraries
•Games extremely popular among young men,
especially isolated ones
•Social connection into a diverse group
•Foster pro-social competitive/play norms
•Place games in wider cultural/social context

102.
TECH ACCESS
•Games tech is hugely influential, not limited
to games uses (as above)
•Access to understand how it works, and be
inspired to create for it, will be expensive
•Already something we do

103.
INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP
•Games/play clearly going to happen
•Major catching up to do
•Lots of interesting experiments happening
•Much more “waiting and watching”, so taking
the lead = visibility (also better learning)

104.
INTERNATIONAL GAMES DAY
•Sat November 21, 2015 (3rd Saturday in Nov)
•http://igd.ala.org/about
•Donations of games
•International inter-library games – Minecraft
Hunger Games, Global Gossip Game

106.
GAMES AS EDUCATIONAL MEDIA
•“Play with” beats “look at”
•Simulations
•More and more common

107.
PROMOTING SOCIAL CONNECTIONS
•Games create a common ground and shared
space that obscures age, gender, ethnicity,
background, even language sometimes
•Play creates a positive experience, turns the
“problem of the other” into the “pleasure”

109.
THEORY OF MIND
•The ability to think about what others are
thinking; precursor to empathy
•Vital life skill
•Key benefit of strategic/social/political
play

110.
BETTER CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
•A blind spot that big has to have
implications for accurate understanding of
culture as a whole
•Especially if play is not just a type of culture
but an element in all culture

111.
Curation & criticism
 No time here to talk about
collection management, except:
 Lending is possible (being done)
 In-house use should be tracked in
some way
 Inventory tech is on the way
 Card sleeves are your friend

112.
Curation & criticism
 As with books, movies, music,
knowing the field is important
 “Players’ advisory” is just as
worthwhile
 Knowing your community matters
(so you can connect people)
 Join your library’s games club?

114.
POINTS OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GAMES
• Electronic/non-electronic/non-mediated
• Story, simulation, competition
(Gamist/Narrativist/Simulationist)
• Co-operative, team-based, competitive
• Dexterity/implementation skill vs
decision-making
• Randomness and pseudo-randomness,
and the effects of where those are built
into the game
• Hidden/public information
• Systemic logic vs human interpretation
• Abstract vs themed vs strongly flavoured
– and tie-ins – specific franchises, general
genres, literary or other
• Player numbers – solitaire through
massively multiplayer
• Scale of game and of movement –
sports/geocaching vs
screen/tabletop/mental games
• Player distribution – local through global
• Play duration – seconds, minutes, hours,
days, years?
• How do games and play sessions
connect? One-offs, tournaments,
indefinite regular groups, other
structures?
• Sequential play, parallel play,
simultaneous play, realtime play
• Nature of the social contract
• Player relationship to character –
none/3rd-person/1st-person
• Social/casual/professional
…and more

115.
Curation & criticism
 Criticism can use all the technical
details mentioned earlier
 But as with any creative work, it’s
about its effect: what it does, how
 What emotions/ideas/experiences
are conveyed/explored/encoded?
 How does that happen?

116.
Curation & criticism
 Time for an example – a quick
game club session!
 Card game called Hanabi

118.
Hanabi
 Play the next highest number (1-5)
in each of 5 colours
 Get each colour’s pile as high as
you can
 Co-operative – all on one team
 Easy, right?

119.
Hanabi
 You can’t see your hand of cards
 YES. You hold your cards with the
BACK FACING YOU
 You can’t talk about what each
other has, except in particular ways
 You can only play 2 wrong cards

120.
 Play a card from your hand – if it’s
wrong, lose an explosion token; or
 Discard a card to gain a clock token; or
 Spend a clock token (if any) to
 name a player, then
 name a colour or number, then
 point to ALL matching cards in that
player’s hand
On your turn:

125.
A challenge ≠ an excuse
Libraries are always anxious about
funding (we’re driven)
We can’t afford to miss this boat
We don’t WANT to miss this boat if
we care about libraries’ mission.
Play is too important.

126.
Use the evidence
We’ve only started looking,
but it’s there and plentiful
Start with the Journal of Play